The New Afrikan Independence Movement/Republic of New Afrika

Editorial Note

The third entry in our Black August series, a cornerstone text by Shaka A. Shakur, articulates the historical and theoretical foundations of the New Afrikan Independence Movement—solidified with the creation of the Republic of New Afrika—and the political, strategic, and tactical considerations they inform. Although parts of the article were published in the mid-1990s, it first appeared in its entirety on the website of the New Afrikan Liberation Collective around 2016. The following version has been edited and updated with editorial notes and additional citations for those seeking further information and clarity on the grounds justifying the claims Shaka advances throughout this important piece. You can read the other entries in the series here.

A Chinese translation of this important text can be found here.

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Land, Independence, and Self-Government have been objectives sought by Black people ever since we were kidnapped from Afrika and brought to this country as slaves. Many ran away and established communities in the woods, mountains, and swamps. We armed ourselves and created bases in which we could operate, liberated zones to which other enslaved brothers and sisters might flee. Others organized rebellions, aimed at destroying slavery and liberating territory from which to build an independent state.

To the Black people who were forced to come to this land, Black nationalism was not taken lightly. Although brutally crushed, Our ancestors continued to revolt. Although sold down the river, they continued to escape. Independence and self-determination were what they wanted. These Blacks were, in effect, laying bricks on a foundation that was later to become known as the Republic of New Afrika [1].

The process that gave rise to what became defined as the New Afrikan Nation started on the Afrikan continent and carried over to North Amerika. Primarily, the New Afrikan Nation was born as a result of its own internal motion and contradictions. Afrikan tribes combined and fused into nations prior to being transported to amerika.

The Origins of New Afrika

You may have had one nation comprised out of many tribes and although each tribe had their own distinct tribal identities and culture. They recognized their collective identity based on their particular collective and historical development. For example, the naming of themselves as Angolans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, etc.. These are National distinctions and National Identities. Despite the fact that within their borders they have different tribal origins and relations, their National Identity and National Consciousness is that of a Collective definition. Afrikans hold many different theories, some are socialist, some are capitalist, some are nationalist, some are Pan-Afrikanist, and so on. The Republic of New Afrika (RNA) is the name given to the Black Nation in Amerika by 500 nationalist leaders at the Black Government Conference held in Detroit, Michigan, and convened by the Malcolm X Society on March 29-31, 1968. The RNA consists of a population of millions of ideas.

Marcus Garvey once exclaimed, “Where is the [B]lack man’s government? Where is his president, his army, his navy, his men of big affairs” [2]?

On March 31, 1968, the seed of Garvey’s prophetic vision came to fruition as a force of over 500 black nationalists met at the convention in Detroit and issued a Declaration of Independence for a Black nation on the North American continent, named that nation the Republic of New Afrikan, and identified five states in the deep south as the subjugated National Territory, creating basic law and a provisional government with elected officials under a mandate to FREE THE LAND!!

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT TEACHES THAT ALL BLACKS DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES IN NORTH AMERIKKKA, ARE CITZENS OF THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRIKA BY BIRTH, FOR WE HAD BEEN SNATCHED FROM EVERY REGION IN AFRIKA AND MOLDED BY THIS COMMON HISTORY OF OPPRESSION AND STRUGGLE INTO A NEW AFRKAN NATION IN THE WORLD.

We were geographically separated from the continent of Afrika, but just as Afrikan as any nation there. Blacks may choose to give up their New Afrikan citizenship, or they may opt for exclusive RNA citizenship. New Afrikan citizenship is a right of birth, and the right to choose in this matter lies at the heart of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Thus, when the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) was established, it set about the task of informing Black people of their rights under international law to self-determination, land, and reparations. Since its existence, the Provisional Government has sharpened the theoretical basis for New Afrikan Political Science, organized national elections for officials in the Government, demanded reparations from the u.s. government, defended itself against enemy attacks, sought to establish diplomatic relations with other governments, and struggled for the right of New Afrikan Prisoners of War. Freedom, Self-Government, and Self-Determination—the objectives sought by Blacks since our arrival in these shores had now reached a higher stage [3].

It is important to note that the PGRNA was established by New Afrikans who held a number of different political, economic, and social theories. What those who founded the PGRNA collectively recognized was that an Afrikan (Black) Nation in amerika does exist. They named it New Afrika, created the Provisional Government for it and gave the PG the dual mission of educating the New Afrikan masses with regard to our true National Identity and struggle for independence in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. These states are a part of the historical Black Belt birthplace, and North Amerikan farmland of the New Afrikan Nation. This area is called the New Afrikan National Territory.

Free the Land

The struggle to free this land is called the New Afrikan Independence Movement. All those in the movement recognize the existence of the nation and partake in the struggle to free it.

While there is a clarion call to “Free The Land” and a movement to target these particular states that we identify as the National Territory, nothing is exempt from undergoing change and evolution. We also know that while it may be a dialectical materialist and theoretical basis to support the establishment of a Sovereign/Independent National Territory. Some realities will be decided by boots on the ground, through the motion of the people, masses. Any serious struggle or war for National Liberation of New Afrikan People and for Socialism will no longer leave the continental north amerika as we know it. Any form of people’s war in the u.s. by the masses for the establishment of a socialist or communist entity will totally cause a reconfiguration of the u.s. empire as we know it.

Various elements, groups, and people who profess to be allies try to deny the legitimacy of our right to wage a National Liberation Struggle or Struggle for Self-Determination; as such these allies often reek of settler arrogance, paternalism, hidden agendas, and thinly camouflaged white nationalism. These superficial allies have never done any real research or investigation into the historical development of the New Afrikan Nation or the history and origin of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. We do not need or seek your validation.

The rhythm of a people never stops whether they are transported across oceans or in the bowels of slave ships or remain stationary. That beat and culture continues, advancing along its path of development and evolution. It is shaped and conditioned by its current conditions and objective material reality. With that being said, the residue of the old remains as it contributes and give rise to and helps to form and shape the new.

Our Struggle for Land, Independence, and Socialism is no less valid or any less legitimate than the anti-colonial wars waged on the continent of Afrika to oust the Portuguese, the Arabs, the Belgium, and other settlers.

The Centuries-Long Struggle for Freedom

In fact, since the arrival of our ancestors on these shores, we have continuously waged a war for Land and Independence from the settler colonizer and imperialist u.s. government. Whether it was in the form of maroons fighting the colonial British forces to a standstill; whether it was forcing the u.s. colonial forces to sign peace treaties or cease fire treaties as we retreated into the hills and/or swamps with Indigenous allies; whether it is screaming in the streets that Black Lives Matter as we rebel and revolt in the Urban Ghetto Kolonies across Amerika; whether it was as we launched raiding parties from the swamps and hills to attack and set afire slave plantations.

This was war and, despite the fact that second-klass citizenship was imposed upon us with the 13th and 14th amendments—changing chattel slavery from private individual ownership to that of state ownership. This war against neo-kolonialism and genocide has not stopped or ceased. It has merely taken on various forms as it goes through its stages of development and dialectical processes. You do not amend a people into a constitution. You do not get to impose second-klass citizenship upon a conquered or kolonized people. In fact, it is a violation of international law as defined by the United Nations regarding formally conquered or kolonized people. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a founding document of the United Nations [4]. Passed in 1948, it has two pertinent points:

1. Everyone has a right to a nationality;
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

When people talk about it being ‘two amerikas,’ when people talk about the rate of imprisonment of New Afrikan people, the rate that New Afrikan people are murdered by kolonial occupational personnel (Kops), or when we talk about the rate of Black womyn dying from various forms of cancer, the school-to-prison pipeline for our children, the environmental racism pumping poisonous water into our schools and communities, etc. etc., this represents National Oppression and Genocide. It ain’t never been no ‘one amerika’ except white racist-settler amerika, so to say ‘two amerikas’ is a misnomer. It is an attempt to divert a proper political assessment and analysis from the truth and keep us going down a path that doesn’t lead to national liberation or freedom. It is a strategic and a military diversionary tactic designed to keep us away from more militant forms of struggle and resistance.

The New Afrikan Liberation Collective represents just one of the many organizations within the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) [5]. We invite you to unite with us as we struggle to not only Free The Land but build up and strengthen the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika and advance our Vita Wa Watu! FREE THE LAND [6]!

Postscript

For additional information pertinent to the argument articulated in this article, see 1) Articles II and III of the U.N.’s “International Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;” 2) the “Programme of Action for the Full Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples;” and 3) the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” [7]. Article II in the U.N.’s International Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide reads:

Next, Article III in the same Convention establishes the specific crimes penalized by the parties of the Convention:

1. Genocide;
2. Conspiracy to commit genocide;
3. Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
4. Attempt to commit genocide;
5. Complicity in genocide [8].

In 1970, the U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 2621 on implementing the prior declaration of the right of colonized peoples to self-determination, noting that

“Colonial peoples have the inherent right to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial Powers which suppress their aspirations for freedom and independence.”

Finally, the very first article of the first part of the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1966 stated again that:

“All people have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

References:

[1] Jalil A. Muntaqim, We Are Our Own Liberators: Selected Prison Writings (Portland: Arissia Media Group, 2000/2010).
[2] Marcus Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, ed. A. Jacques-Garvey (New York: Atheneum, 1986), 126.
[3] Muntaqim, We Are Our Own Liberators, 109-156.
[4] U.N. General Assembly, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” 217 (III) A (Paris, 1948). Retrieved 18 May 2024 here.
[5] The New Afrikan Liberation Collective was founded around 2015 in the Pendleton “Correctional” Facility, one of the most infamous of Indiana’s numerous repressive institutions. Its founders, Kwame “Beans” Shakur and Shaka Shakur, established the collective—one of several groupings—to continue the development and flourishing of the struggle for the Liberation of New Afrikans and the creation of the Republic of New Afrika. – Ed. Note.
[6] A Swahili motto, Vita Wa Watu is generally translated into English as “People’s War.” In 1986, after the seventh and last edition of the journal, Notes from a New Afrikan POW, the Vita Wa Watu journal inherited the legacy as the theoretical Afrikan Independence Movement. – Ed. Note
[7] The following citations of international law come from the following sources: U.N. General Assembly, “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” 260 (III) (Paris, 1948). Retrieved 18 May 2024 here; U.N. General Assembly, “Programme of Action for the Full Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,” 2621 XXV (New York, 1970). Retrieved 18 May 2024 here; and U.N. General Assembly, “International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” 2200 XXI (New York, 1966). Retrieved 18 May 2024 here. – Ed. Note
[8] The u.s. did not ratify the Genocide convention until 05 November 1988, 40 years after the founding document was enshrined into international law. – Ed. Note

Featured photo: Robert F. Williams meeting with Mao Tse-Tung on March on 31 March 1967, during his three-year exile in the People’s Republic of China. Williams was in the PRC when elected as the inaugural President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika exactly one year later.